Pay protected but shutdown stings military multiple
ways

October 3, 2013

By Tom Philpott

As House Republicans prepared to close
down a large part of the government in their latest attempt to gut the
2010 Affordable Care Act, one of their own introduced the Pay Our
Military Act (HR 3210) to allow military members to be paid through the
shutdown.

Congress quickly passed the bill from
Rep. Mike Coffman (Colo.), a Marine Corps Reserve retiree, and President
Obama signed it into law. So military pay continues even as 400,000
defense civilian employees go on unpaid furlough.

The shutdown is stinging military
communities in other ways, and the hurt is enhanced by the tough budget
choices Defense officials must make entering a second year of
sequestration. The temporary closing of 175 stateside commissaries is a
prime example.

"Commissary patrons across the United States reacted to
the announced store closures in the same manner as customers descend on
a grocery store to prepare for a hurricane,"said the Defense
Commissary Agency in responding to our question about store traffic that
last day.

Commissary sales Oct. 1, the day before
base grocery stores were shuttered, totaled $30.6 million, or more than
double normal sales. About 85 percent of those dollars were spent in
stores now closed.

"Those numbers underscore the impact of the closure on
commissary patrons, who demonstrated with their transactions on Oct. 1
that they depend on their commissary benefit,"the agency
said.

Commissaries overseas remain open, as
do all military exchanges, or base department stores, which are
self-funded.

When Republicans last shut down the
government, for a few days in 1995 and several weeks in 1996, Defense
officials allowed all base grocery stores to operate normally. Why not
this time?

"In each decision to keep commissaries open or closed, the
Department of Defense based its rulings on the budget environment at the
time,"the agency responded.

Closing all stateside commissaries,
except for two in remote areas of California and one in Alaska,
disappointed patrons but it has stunned food manufacturers, distributors
and brokers who supply the goods. Their representatives are upset and
urging the administration to reverse course.

"This is uncharted territory for commissaries,"Patrick
B. Nixon, president of American Logistics Association, and Thomas T.
Gordy, president of Armed Forces Marketing Council, told Deputy Defense
Secretary Ash Carter in a joint letter signed Tuesday.

They noted how commissaries stayed open
through past shutdowns and how suppliers expected this policy to be
repeated. Nixon and Gordy warned of"pressure on
in-store inventory and the working capital funds as products begin to
spoil and reach their expiration dates."They
predicted"precipitous disruption of the supply chain,"creating"difficult
issues"for distributors and brokers over inventory ownership in
the pipeline and"a host of logistical, administrative and legal
matters as products expire"and costs climb into the"hundreds
of millions of dollars."

It’s unclear
what authority Defense officials used in past shutdowns to keep
commissaries open. But Nixon and Gordy said the new Pay Our Military Act
would allow the department to bestow"excepted
status"on commissary employees. Specifically the law says pay
can be provided"to civilian personnel of the Department of
Defense whom the Secretary concerned determines are providing support to
members of the armed forces."

Yet 11,000 commissary employees are now
furloughed, many of them military family members and
retirees.

Joyce Wessel Raezer, executive director
of the National Military Family Association, said she too was surprised
to see stateside commissaries closed.

"Reports from several of our volunteers who ventured out
said the commissaries were a mad house"that last
day."Basically the crowds accomplished what DECA wanted; it
got rid of perishables…If people
build into their family financial plan getting groceries for a certain
cost at the commissary, versus going downtown, they are going to stock
up as much as they can"to capture savings before stores close,
Raezer said.

Her organizations is more concerned
with the shutdown’s effect on
access to base healthcare and family support services. Levels of
staffing for these activities are being determined by individual
commands, she said.

"We are hearing from our volunteers at local installations
on what’s open, what’s closed. But
the quality of information varies tremendously. And it’s
going to get worse because, in most cases, people responsible for
updating the DoD and service websites are now furloughed,"Raezer
said.

Schools and Child Development Centers
on base are open. But childcare for school-age children before school
and after might not be available if located away from development
centers. Many young military families who rely on Women, Infant and
Children (WIC) nutritional assistance could see that program running out
of money if the shutdown drags on.

"So not only are we making families pay more at the
grocery store, our young, vulnerable families with babies and little
kids are going to lose the extra nutritional support,"Raezer
said.

Furloughs will impact access to care in
base hospitals and clinics but the Defense Health Agency can’t
predict how yet. DHA does vow that the shutdown will not impact
inpatient care, acute care or emergency care on base, nor will it affect
access to private sector care under TRICARE options.

Though activated Guard and Reserve
personnel will be paid, reserve component drills are being cancelled so
drill pay will stop. Death gratuities to survivors of members killed on
active duty will be delayed. Education centers on bases are closed and
tuition assistance is unavailable.

Promotion boards are suspended.
Training and travel are disrupted unless connected to the war in
Afghanistan, readiness for future deployments or other"excepted
activities"including emergency services, police, firefighters and
emergency medical personnel.

Military families with questions about
the shutdown’s effects can visit or call Military One Source
(www.militaryonesource.mil or
800-342-9647), which is one activity being kept fully staffed during the
shutdown.